Cathy O'BRIEN

As Cathy Schiro, she was a high school distance running phenom, winning the 1984 Foot Locker Cross-Country Championships as a senior, after placing third as a junior. She won the New Hampshire high school cross-country championships five times, starting as an eighth grader when she was actually in junior high school.

O’Brien ran the marathon at both the 1988 and 1992 Olympics, placing 40th in 1988 and 10th in 1992. She actually ran the 1984 US Olympic Trials marathon, finishing ninth while a high school student. O’Brien was second in the 1989 Paris Marathon and third that year in the Chicago Marathon. She also won a silver medal in the 10K at the 1990 Goodwill Games. She competed at the 1996 Olympic Trials in the 10K but elected not to run the marathon trials because of injuries. O’Brien basically retired after 1996, except for minor local road racing.

She and her husband and family settled in Maine, where she worked as a music teacher, especially giving violin lessons. She conducted the orchestra at the Berwick Academy in Berwick, Maine and played violin in a band called Bliss. O’Brien graduated from the University of New Hampshire, where she studied music.